Tendrils
by katriel1987
Summary: Snapshots of life, and death, in the Winchester world.
1. tendrils

**A/N: **My first attempt at the 50-sentence word prompt thing. I know that some of these are terribly run-on; sorry about that. I sometimes have trouble being concise. I'm working on it. I think one of these sentences in particular is the most convoluted run-on I've written since I was 12 (I read a lot of classic literature back then, and was about as concise as Dickens in 'A Tale of Two Cities').

If by some odd chance someone gets inspired by one of these and wants to turn it into a fic, just ask. It's slightly possible (but somewhat improbable) that I might someday expand some of them into longer stories.

**Spoilers: **"Pilot", "Phantom Traveler" (vague), "Faith", "Route 666" (vague), "Devil's Trap", "Hunted", "Born Under a Bad Sign", "All Hell Breaks Loose" (both parts)

**Warnings: **Character death in some (okay, quite a few) sentences. Violence and blood (it's _me_ writing, after all). General darkness. Implied torture and vague hints of...worse. **Never** any Wincest. No pairings.

**A/N 2: **Some of these sentences are connected; some aren't; some might or might not be. A few are episode-based; most are straight out of my twisted mind. A few are Wee!Chester but most aren't. Tense may change from sentence to sentence. Some are AU; all are pretty much Dean-centric. Maybe later I'll do 50 for Sam.

* * *

**1) Cold:**

Dean never tells Sam about the time that he lay bleeding in the snow and called Sam's name for twenty minutes before remembering that Sam was off being normal.

**2) Breathe:**

Little Sammy's head only slipped underwater for a few seconds; he came up out of the bathtub crying and it was Dean who stopped breathing.

**3) Run:**

Dean's last thought before the werewolf ripped out his throat was that he was glad Sam had longer legs and could run faster than him.

**4) Song:**

Dean remembers that his mom had a voice like an angel, and it was the only music he ever liked better than mullet rock.

**5) Glide:**

When Sam starts screaming, Dean runs so fast he's pretty sure his feet never touch the ground.

**6) Alternate:**

In a different world, Dean is killed by a wendigo when he's seventeen and Sam leads a demon army ten years later.

**7) Memory:**

One night when he's drunk and remembering, John laughs and says that Mary couldn't carry a tune in a bucket, but Dean still remembers her sounding like an angel.

**8) Improbable:**

By all rights, it should have been impossible for Dean to get up out of the bloody snow and walk a half-mile to the road so he could flag down a car.

**9) Flame:**

Dean has always known he's going to die in a fire; he just hopes Sam doesn't have to see it.

**10) Mediate:**

If Mary had lived, Dean wouldn't have had to stand alone between John and Sam.

**11) Hold:**

Dean was four when Sammy was placed into his arms, and it turned out he never could let go.

**12) Truth:**

The Demon said two different things while wearing John's face, _I_'_m proud of you_ and _they don_'_t need you_—Dean wishes he didn't know which of them was true.

**13) Rugged:**

When he walks in, her first thought is _God, he_'_s gorgeous_—but then she sees the coiled danger in his walk, recognizes rugged strength and tiger's grace, and she knows that this is a man she could fear.

**14) Shake:**

"It's okay, Sammy," Dean says, "you're okay"; but he can still hear Sam's screams echoing and he doesn't stop shaking for hours.

**15) Dementia:**

"I'm sorry, but the medication isn't working—he's still babbling about ghosts and demons, and a little brother who doesn't exist."

**16) Ghost:**

"Sammy," Dean said, his pissed face flickering in and out, "why the hell didn't you burn me?"

**17) Pull:**

Sam told him to hang on, that he'd pull him up, but Dean saw that Sam was sliding toward the edge...so he let go.

**18) Glass:**

Dean looks thoughtfully at the shard protruding from his wrist and wonders how long it'll take him to bleed to death if he pulls it out.

**19) Emaciate:**

Sam wants to cry the minute he steps over the bastard's body and sees Dean pale and shaking, tied up in the corner, but the tears don't come until he puts his arms around Dean and touches bones wearing nothing but skin.

**20) Betray:**

In his head Dean knows Sam wasn't in control, but his heart can't seem to forget that it was Sam's hand that pulled the trigger.

**21) Farewell:**

Dean never really mentions it, but the fact that his father doesn't call back makes him wonder why he isn't worth saying goodbye to.

**22) Infant:**

"He's kinda ugly," Dean observed, staring at his new baby brother, "but I like him anyway."

**23) Fly:**

The poltergeist throws Dean through the window, and as he bursts through in an explosion of sparkling glass he thinks, _This must be what it feels like to be a bird._

**24)****Beauty:**

"Your brother was beautiful," the bastard says just before Sam shoots him in the head; "prettiest boy I ever caught."

**25) Summer:**

Rising heat crawls over his skin like swarming bugs, sharp and prickly, and he watches his blood congeal on the pavement like drying glue, wondering if Sam will come back in time.

**26) Missing:**

Dean goes out to a bar one night and just never comes back; it takes Sam nearly three weeks to find him.

**27) Break:**

On his way to the ground Dean thinks _This is SO going to break something,_ but he never lands...at least not that he remembers.

**28) Matrimony:**

Dean made the mistake of falling in love once, but he was never stupid enough to get married.

**29) Shatter:**

Dean sits on the ground for a long time, holding the child's body, and Sam can almost see the cracks spreading through his brother's soul.

**30) Killer:**

"I'm a killer," Dean says, talking over the whimpers of one of the hunters who shot Sam, "and you took away the only person who could ever stop me."

**31) Mythology:**

"That was a water nymph," Sam explains, after dragging his dripping brother out of the water; "according to Greek mythology they had a thing for...um...kidnapping beautiful men."

**32) Reservations:**

Dean says that he has a bad feeling about this hunt; later Sam will wish desperately that he'd listened to his brother's instincts.

**33) Prayer:**

Dean prayed for Layla like he promised, but after she died, he only ever prayed twice more: once when he lunged forward to catch a falling (_bleeding dying_) Sam, and once more (_though he knew it wouldn_'_t save him_) when he woke up in a prison made of bone and flesh and blood and fear.

**34) Threat:**

"Sammy," Dean said, still coughing up water, "if you ever call me beautiful again I swear I'll kick your ass."

**35) Relief:**

Sam's been tugging at his bonds and calling Dean's name for twenty minutes; he has almost reached panicked despair (_oh God he_'_s DEAD_) when Dean finally stirs and Sam can't hold back a small sob of relief.

**36) History:**

At first they thought it was just a concussion, but now the doctor's looking worried and asking whether Dean has a history of head injuries, and Sam almost gives a hysterical laugh even though it's not at all funny.

**37) Realization:**

Even before he didn't find a pulse in his brother's neck, Sam knew—because nobody could lose that much blood and live.

**38) Guard:**

_If you can_'_t save Sammy, you_'_ll have to kill him_—it's like training a German Shepherd its entire life to guard one person at all costs, and then expecting it to rip out that person's throat at a single command.

**39) Fear:**

Dean was afraid of the dark from the moment his mom died; he channeled that fear into a life of killing the things that made the dark worth fearing.

**40) Apocalypse:**

Sam's on his knees cradling his brother's bleeding body, saying _Don_'_t leave me, please, Dean, don_'_t leave me,_ but Dean's heart stutters to a stop anyway...and then something snaps in Sam's head, a switch flips, and the sky begins to burn.

**41) Protect:**

Sam never says so, but sometimes the things Dean would do to protect him—they scare him, too.

**42) Travel:**

Dean Winchester travels by airplane twice in his life: the second time the plane crashes, and Dean's last coherent thought is _Dammit, Sammy, I TOLD you so!_

**43) Wolf:**

Dean was out hunting a Wendigo, but it was a regular, run-of-the-mill wolf that got him instead; he killed the bitch and then collapsed, bleeding, into the snow.

**44) Hate:**

When Sam turns, he doesn't give Dean the mercy of a quick death; leaves him bleeding and writhing on the ground and still Dean can't quite manage to hate his little brother.

**45) Dream:**

Afterward, Dean tries hard not to remember, but when he sleeps his dreams are sweat and blood and dark and a voice whispering _So beautiful._

**46) Legend:**

For hundreds of years after, the nymph spoke wistfully of the most beautiful human she'd ever seen, the man who was snatched from her grasp at the last second—the one that got away.

**47) Laugh:**

Dean dies laughing the first real laugh that Sam has heard from him in ages; Sam makes an unexpected smart-ass remark that he won't even remember later, and Dean actually laughs out loud, and then the ghost puts a crowbar through his heart from behind and he's still almost laughing as he falls.

**48) Regret:**

"I'm not sorry," Dean says quietly in the last few minutes before she comes to rip out his soul; "It was worth it."

**49) Dark:**

When he first met Dean Winchester, Bobby remembers thinking that there was darkness running deep in the kid (_and hell to pay if it ever got out_); now he realizes (_too late_) that the darkness never left, it just hid behind Dean's lightning-bright smile until they took Sam away, and then it swallowed Dean whole.

**50) Rat:**

Dean never does tell Sam why he hates rats so much, but sometimes he still dreams of being chained in a damp basement, of waking from blood loss-induced unconsciousness to find rats chewing on his feet.

* * *

Because I'm amazingly sweet and kind, here are the related sentences, in chronological order:

--------------------

**43)** Wolf

**1)** Cold

**8)** Improbable

--------------------

**4)** Song

**7)** Memory

--------------------

**5)** Glide

**14)** Shake

--------------------

**17)** Pull _or_**23)** Fly

**27) **Break

--------------------

**26)** Missing

**24)** Beauty

**19)** Emaciate

**45) **Dream

--------------------

**30)** Killer

**49)** Dark

--------------------

**31)** Mythology

**34)** Threat

**46)** Legend

--------------------

_Possibly..._

**18)** Glass

**37)** Realization


	2. whispers

**title:** whispers (part 2 of 'tendrils')

**summary: **50 more word-prompt sentences about life and death in the Winchester world.

**rating:** I considered rating this section M, just to be safe, but I decided on T instead. be aware that it might be borderline.

**spoilers:** anything and everything is fair game. I can think of spoilers for "pilot", "wendigo", "home", "faith", "in my time of dying", "bloodlust", "born under a bad sign", "heart", "folsom prison blues" and "all hell breaks loose 2".

**warnings:** blood. violence. character death in quite a few sections. general darkness. implied (but definitely **not** **explicit**) non-con.

**characters:** mainly Sam and Dean, but includes, in various quantities: Jess, Mary, John, demon!Meg, Henricksen, and a few OCs.

**pairings:** vaguely implied John/Mary; Sam/Jess; implied OMC/OFC non-con; implied demon!Meg/Dean non-con (which is also vaguely sort of Henricksen/Dean non-con...it's complicated)

**a/n:** some sentences are connected; some are not; some may or may not be. a few are episode-based; many are AU; tense may change from sentence to sentence. I tried to divide the focus more equally between Sam and Dean this time...not sure how well I succeeded. if anyone wants to turn one of these into a longer fic, just ask. I'll more than likely grant permission.

* * *

**1) water:**

They found Dean's body at the bottom of the lake the next day, and Sam was forever haunted by a shot and a splash he would never remember.

**2) empty:**

Sam wakes up to another empty motel room and realizes he can't remember how long Dean's been dead.

**3) kiss:**

Jess asked Sam once about the nightmares, and he brushed her off with a shrug and a kiss on the cheek—something he'd regret for the rest of his life.

**4) end:**

When the final battle is over and the dust settles, Sam isn't dead; but when he sees what's left of his brother, he wishes he was.

**5) prophecy:**

Mary had a crazy sister named Cassandra who talked with the wind; when Mary was nineteen, Cass told her of a yellow-eyed man, said _he'll come for your baby someday,_ and Mary laughed awkwardly and asked _are you taking your medicine?_

**6) desperate:**

"Christo," Dean says in desperation, and when Sam doesn't flinch, Dean knows it's over.

**7) bullet:**

She wakes to pain in her chest and blood everywhere, and a hazel-eyed man leaning over her, saying "it's gonna be okay" as he puts the final bullet through her heart.

**8) sunrise:**

John and Sam took Dean for granted because he was so reliable, always there for them, sure as the sunrise—until one day a poltergeist threw him out a third-story window and the sun never rose again.

**9) first:**

Dean Winchester killed his first human when he was twenty-two; caught the bastard raping a thirteen-year-old girl and capped him in the head without a second thought.

**10) scarlet:**

There's blood splattered all over his clothes, the floor, the walls—but he doesn't fall apart until he looks down and sees the knife in his hand.

**11) difference:**

Dean's always all right, except when he's not...but he tries to make sure nobody ever knows the difference.

**12) moon:**

Dean's blood looks black in the moonlight; Sam stares down at him, power still sparking through his fingertips, and thinks _Oh God, what have I done?_

**13) engagement:**

Sam and Jess have been engaged for a week when Sam gets the call from his father: _Sammy, it's Dean...he went after a wendigo in Colorado...son, I didn't get there in time._

**14) young:**

The werewolf couldn't have been more than fifteen, and she looked so scared at the end; Dean put a silver bullet through her heart without hesitation and then barely spoke for the next three days.

**15) priestess:**

Her blue eyes sparkle as she drags the knife across Dean's chest, cutting deep, and he thinks _If you weren't an evil bitch, I'd probably be hitting on you right now._

**16) nova:**

He has beautiful green-brown eyes, shaggy dark hair, and a smile like a supernova—Jess is still blinking when he walks away.

**17) garlic:**

"Dude," Sam says with a disgusted expression, "if garlic really repelled vampires, you'd _never_ have to worry about getting bitten."

**18) home:**

A black 1967 Chevy Impala is the closest thing Dean Winchester has had to a home since he was four years old.

**19) consolation:**

"I'm so sorry," she tells the boys uselessly, knowing that the only way she could really make it better would be to bring their father back.

**20) vengeance:**

"I've wanted to do this for a long time," the Meg-demon whispered, using Henricksen's body to pin Dean to the floor; it laughed out loud when he finally cried out.

**21) jade:**

Sam is the only person whose eyes Jess has ever described as _jade-green_...until Dean shows up in the living room, cocky and shadowed and every bit as beautiful as his brother.

**22) therapy:**

_You'll need physical therapy,_ the doctor says, inspecting the cast on Dean's hand; but Dean doesn't care, because the magic words _full recovery_ have been spoken, and that's all that really matters.

**23) penalty:**

_Death by lethal injection,_ the jury decrees, and Dean decides that _screwed_ doesn't even come close to describing his situation.

**24) subterranean:**

"_God_, I hate caves," Dean says, an instant before the spirit pulls him backward and he disappears into the underground river.

**25) graduate:**

Dean got his diploma, but chose hunting a langsuir over attending the ceremony; Sam was valedictorian of his class and Dean teased him about it, but went to his graduation anyway.

**26) numb:**

"Dean," Sam says, his terrified eyes pleading _fix this, make it okay;_ "Dean, I can't feel my legs."

**27) book:**

Sam loved books from the beginning: there was something about crisp, ink-stained pages filled with all the knowledge of the world that called to his soul.

**28) gentle:**

When Henricksen trailed his fingers gently down Dean's cheek, even before his eyes flashed black, Dean knew he was in trouble.

**29) conjure:**

As invisible fingers closed around his throat and squeezed, Sam had an instant to wish that people would _stop_ conjuring things they had no idea how to control.

**30) lunar:**

"I'm not asking you to kill me," Dean said in the parking lot outside Sam's apartment, staring at the moon, three days left until he turned werewolf; "I'll do it, but I need you to salt and burn my body."

**31) elemental:**

_They're __my__ sons,_ Mary's spirit whispers fiercely, flame dancing across her fingertips and flaring at her command; _you can't have them._

**32) nap:**

"S'okay, Sammy," Dean said, his eyes fluttering closed as blood poured down his chin; "I jus'...need...to rest...for a minute."

**33) force:**

As long as he lives, Dean will never forget the coldness of the rifle barrel beneath his chin, and the unstoppable force in his head whispering _Pull the trigger._

**34) meteorite:**

In Sam's dreams years later, Jess burns in the sky like a meteorite, as bright in death as she was in life.

**35) irony:**

The creature smirked as it shot Sam twice in the chest with his own consecrated bullets; he survived just long enough to think of the word _irony._

**36) passing:**

Mary's younger sister Cass died two months before Dean was born; she was hit by a car and survived just long enough to tell Mary, _I don't want you to burn._

**37) normal:**

It took Sam years to realize that his idea of 'normal' and Dean's idea of 'normal' were two very, _very_ different things.

**38) smash:**

There's a loud thump and Dean lets out a strangled yell; Sam turns around and blinks in disbelief when he realizes that the big, heavy trunk from the corner is now _sitting on Dean's hand._

**39) lie:**

"What did he _do_ to you?" Sam asks, scared of the answer; but Dean just stares at the floor and says, "Nothing."

**40) quiet:**

The sound of a spine snapping isn't nearly as loud as Sam would have expected.

**41) magnetism:**

He's very ill, if not dying—Layla can tell by the paleness of his skin, the careful way he stands and moves—but he's still the most beautiful person she's ever seen, and she's drawn to him like a moth to flame.

**42) inability:**

"I can't," Dean says brokenly, dropping the gun back onto the bed; "I'd rather die."

**43) unexpected:**

Sam's pissed at Dean for some reason he won't even remember later, and finally he snaps "Rain check!" and hits his brother...he doesn't realize, until Dean goes flying back through a plate-glass window, that he threw the punch _with his mind._

**44) coerce:**

"You do this for me," she purred, her breath hot on his cheek, "and I might just let your baby brother live."

**45) love:**

Dean did everything his father asked without complaint, and watched with a quiet gaze that pleaded _Do you love me now?_...but Sam fought and questioned and pushed the boundaries, his fierce eyes asking _Do you love me still?_

**46) hitch:**

"I'm _fine,_ Sam," Dean says impatiently, but Sam can hear the sharp hitch in his breathing.

**47) tears:**

_He's gonna be beautiful, Mary,_ Cass whispered a week before she died, hand resting on Mary's swollen belly; then her brown-green eyes filled with tears and she added, _A killer...he'll be a killer._

**48) principal:**

"Sam, you're intelligent enough to get into any college you want," the principal says, and Sam sees a whole new world open up before him.

**49) flash:**

The last thing she ever sees, after Sam's terrified face has disappeared from her dimming vision, is _brighthotfireyellow._

**50) eulogy:**

"He was my brother...he was the bravest person I ever knew."

* * *

here are the connected sentences, in chronological order: 

----

(possibly)

**6) **desperate

**12)** moon

----

**7)** bullet

**14)** young

----

**28)** gentle

**20)** vengeance

**39)** lie

----

**38)** smash

**22)** therapy

----

**5)** prophecy

**47)** tears

**36)** passing

----

(possibly)

**4)** end

**50)** eulogy


	3. echoes

**Title:** Echoes (sequel of sorts to _**Tendrils**_ and _**Whispers**_)

**Summary:** 50 more sentences on life and death in the Winchester world.

**Rating:** Teen

**Spoilers:** Anything up to the end of Season 2 is fair game; I can think of spoilers for "Wendigo", "Dead in the Water", "Scarecrow", "Faith", "In My Time of Dying", "Everybody Loves a Clown", "Bloodlust", "Hunted", "All Hell Breaks Loose" (both parts).

**Warnings:** Blood. Violence. Character death in quite a few sentences. (Come on, it's _me_ writing.) General darkness. Lots of hurt!Dean and some hurt!Sam.

**Characters:** Mainly Sam and Dean, but includes in various quantities: Gordon, Henricksen, Mary, Jess, John, YED, a few OCs. Probably more of Henricksen than the other minor characters, because he's just _too_ fun to play with.

**Pairings:** _Very_ slight Dean/OFC. I don't write Wincest, so none of that.

**A/N:** Some sentences are connected; some are not; some may or may not be. A few are episode-based; many are AU; tense may change from sentence to sentence. I seem to be in a post-AHBL2 speculation mood lately, so there's a lot of that.

**A/N 2: **If anyone wants to turn one of these into a longer fic, just ask. I'll probably grant permission.

**A/N 3: **#24 _**hurt**_ is based on two sentences from "Tendrils"—#5 _**glide**_ and #14 _**shake**_. #28 _**recall**_ is based on one sentence from "Tendrils"—#17 _**pull**_. #29 _**thought**_ is based on three sentences from "Whispers"—#5 _**prophecy**_, #47 _**tears**_ and #36_** passing**_.

**----**

**1) pieces:**

Dean's never been much good at academics, but he can construct almost anything out of bits and pieces of other things; a useful talent, considering that he's spent most of his life trying to build the ashes of his broken world into something that won't fall apart.

**2) decapitate:**

Kendra Walker hesitated, fangs bared but dark eyes flashing with recognition; "Gordon?" she whispered, and never saw the machete coming at her neck.

**3) misguided:**

Dean made the deal because he was sure Sam could live without him; he was wrong.

**4) azure:**

He's on his back in the grass, staring up at the bluest sky he's ever seen and knowing he should be worried because it doesn't hurt anymore.

**5) transparent:**

"Sam, thank God!" Dean breaks into a run when he sees his brother, concern and anger and relief all intermingled, but then Sam turns around...and flickers, transparent for an instant.

**6) individual:**

Dean has never really found out who he is apart from his family...and he's pretty sure he doesn't want to know.

**7)** **roll:**

Sam rolled to the side an instant too late, and the ax blade left a trail of fire down his back.

**8) chivalry:**

Her name was Ally, and she was in Dean's class; she didn't tell him to stop, but her eyes got wide and frightened, so he drove her home, kissed her on the cheek, and told her goodnight.

**9) year:**

A year always seemed like a long time until he realized it was all he had left.

**10) smoke:**

He dreams for months afterward about crackling flames, the taste of ash, and smoke that smelled like a thousand burning graves—nothing at all like leather and gunpowder (_Dad_).

**11) monster:**

Hands pressed over the bullet wound in his chest, Dean Winchester looked up at the dark, clawed shape advancing on Victor Henricksen and said weakly, "I'm...not...the monster, Henricksen; I...never was."

**12) attack:**

Bobby _knew_ as soon as he heard Dean scream Sam's name, and it made his chest hurt so bad that for a minute he was afraid he was having a heart attack.

**13) collapse:**

After they saved Haley and her brothers, Dean let the medics bandage his face but refused further care; it wasn't until Dean collapsed four hours later that Sam realized how badly he'd been hurt.

**14) pyromania:**

Sam turned Burkitsville inside-out, but all he found was the Vanir's tree, no trace of his brother...so he torched the tree, and then he torched the town, and laughed while he watched them burning.

**15) tranquil:**

"Dean, _wake up,_" Sam says with fear in his voice, but the grass is soft and the sunlight is warm and Dean wants to stay there forever.

**16) fate:**

The dreams begin when she's twelve; she's looking down and bleeding and _brighthotfire_...she never wakes up screaming (and when she's twenty-one, she never wakes up at all).

**17) storm:**

The storm sweeps in from the north, black roiling clouds and jagged bolts of lightning, and Sam raises his face to the sky and wonders if the rain can ever wash away the blood on his soul.

**18) beg:**

Dean was lying on the raised stone table, blood everywhere; Sam paused, afraid to touch, and his heart broke when Dean whispered without opening his eyes, "Don't...please don't."

**19) anticipation:**

"So, so pretty," the crossroad demon purrs, trailing borrowed fingers down Dean's face as he draws his last breath; "I'll have fun with you."

**20) prediction:**

Dean Winchester predicted the exact day and hour he would die, even invited Henricksen to come watch; nobody could ever explain how Winchester knew, or how those godawful claw marks appeared while he was locked alone in a maximum-security cell.

**21) volt:**

An instant after he fires the taser, Dean thinks _Damn, that was stupid;_ then 100,000 volts of electricity flow through his body and he doesn't think anything at all.

**22) linger:**

The Demon tries, but It can't purge all traces of humanity from Sam's soul; Dean is dead, but Sam's memories of him just _will not _go away.

**23) almost:**

By the time Sam and Bobby find Dean, he's making horrible wheezing sounds while choking on his own blood; they rush him to the hospital and he almost makes it.

**24) hurt:**

It hurts more than anything Sam's ever felt, and he can't stop the screams that rip from his throat...then there's shouting and gunfire, and the pain goes away, and Dean is there.

**25) scare:**

Sam's head snaps up when Dean finally walks in; Sam is opening his mouth to say _Dude, don't scare me like that!_ when Dean gives a strange half-smile and falls straight forward.

**26) ending:**

Dean knows he's not meant to have a happy ending, but he plans to make _damn_ sure that Sam gets one.

**27) cry:**

The day Dean Winchester dies, nine-year-old Lucas Barr won't stop crying; his mother never does find out why.

**28) recall:**

Sam will never, ever forget the feeling of Dean's fingers slipping through his, or the sight of Dean's wide-eyed face as he fell silently to his death.

**29) thought:**

Mary's second-to-last thought before she burned was _Sammy_...her last thought, filled with regret and belated understanding, was _Cassandra._

**30) singular:**

"We're so screwed," Sam says out loud; a minute later he remembers that he's supposed to think in the singular now, so he amends, _"I'm_ so screwed."

**31) slow:**

"I could stab you in the heart, but that would be too quick," Meg's pretty new host says, twirling a silver knife; she kisses Dean, slow and deep, while she slides the knife between his ribs and into a lung.

**32) headache:**

After Dean, Sam cries until his eyes swell almost shut and his head pounds with every heartbeat; then he sits in the front seat of the Impala staring at Dean's Colt like it can solve all his problems.

**33) reconsider:**

Bobby's always thought John's younger boy takes after him more; but when he opens the door and sees Sam standing there, alive, he realizes he might have to rethink that a little.

**34) scream:**

Sometimes at night, with his wife's soft form curled against him, Victor still dreams of the way Dean Winchester screamed at the end, just once, while something invisible tore him apart.

**35) return:**

If Dean hadn't made the deal, Bobby would have returned to find both of John's boys cold and dead.

**36) wishes:**

All Sam ever wanted was safety, a job and a wife and kids who didn't have to fear the dark; what he got instead was a resurrection he wouldn't have asked for, a brother dead after one year, and a short lifetime of hunting alone because it was all he had left.

**37) silence:**

Sam wished desperately that Dean would stop screaming...but when silence finally fell and he realized what it meant, he prayed to hear the screams again.

**38) premonition:**

The first time Jess kissed Sam, she thought of fire.

**39) reversal:**

In a different world, Sam goes to college and gets married and his parents are very proud of him; Dean dies in a house fire at 26, along with the little girl he was trying to save.

**40) son:**

_Dad, please,_ Dean whispers through the blood clogging his throat, and for an instant all John sees is a freckled four-year-old with Mommy's big hazel eyes.

**41) smile:**

Sometimes when Dean smiles—_really_ smiles, so that his eyes crinkle at the corners and his whole face lights up—Sam can't help but wonder who Dean might have been, if he'd gotten the chance to decide.

**42) exception:**

_What's dead should stay dead,_ Dean said once, and Sam wants to ask him, _Why am I the exception?_

**43) unsolved:**

It was one of those mysteries that never got solved: they found Dean Winchester dead from a bullet wound to the chest, and fifteen feet away lay the mangled, bloody wreck that had once been Victor Henricksen.

**44) before:**

There are a lot of things Dean wants to do before he dies; falling in love isn't one of them, because he tried that and it _sucked._

**45) plea:**

The last thing Sam ever hears is Dean's voice breaking in a sob as he says "Hang on, Sammy, _please_..."

**46) barrel:**

"I'm not here to bring you in," Victor says, staring down the barrel of Sam's gun; "I just want to know the truth about what happened to your brother."

**47) accidental:**

"I didn't mean to," nine-year-old Sammy whispered, his eyes filling with tears; and even though Dean was still bleeding, he smiled and said "I know, Sammy, it's okay."

**48) wall:**

The girl's eyes flash black, and she slams Dean into unyielding concrete; he feels something snap deep inside and knows he won't walk away this time

**49) adequate:**

Sam and John were more alike than they knew: no matter how hard he tried, John never thought he could be good enough for his younger son.

**50) fox:**

_I was right; it __was__ a kitsune,_ Sam thinks proudly; but his moment of gloating comes to an abrupt end when his clothes burst into flame.

----

connected sentences, in chronological order:

----

**4)** azure

**15)** tranquil

----

_possibly_

**37)** silence

**18)** beg

----

**11)** monster

**43)** unsolved

----

**20)** prediction

**34)** scream

**46) **barrel

----

**31)** slow

**23)** almost


End file.
